Curiously Carmen

Korres Pure Greek Olive 3-in-1 Nourishing Oil

For the past year or so, I have mostly been repurchasing my trusted Mizon Snail Repair Cream, which doesn’t really leave opportunities for as many skincare reviews. But as usual, my skin gets used to the product and doesn’t work as well as it used to – which is common for a lot of people.

To give my skin a bit of a moisture boost, I was introduced to the new Korres 3 in 1 Nourishing Oil. It is part of their new Pure Olive Oil line that launched this season for the first time outside of Greece.

What it says (taken from press release):

Velvety, luxurious oil without silicones for intensive nourishment of face, body and hair. Rich in organic extra virgin Olive oil and reinforced with a mixture of Vitamins C, E, F and omega-6 fatty acids, to improve the natural skin barrier, ensuring smooth skin with increased elasticity. The unique properties of Olive oil offer shiny, smooth hair, preventing breakage and frizz. Easily absorbed, non-greasy and with a fine scent, the PURE GREEK Olive 3-in-1 Nourishing Oil is ideal for all ages and all skin types.

Application: It is called a 3 in 1 oil because the oil is versatile and could be used in 3 places: face, body, and hair. I have been using this mainly on my face day and night, after applying my regular cream above. I usually put around 3 drops on my palm, rub it between my hands, and then pat it over my face.

The oil absorbs pretty fast and is very light weight, and lacks the heavy oil feeling. There is also a pleasant, neutral scent (not too feminine or masculine) that lingers around for a few hours too.

If you have dry hair or split ends, this would be a great product to nourish your hair with and to give it a healthy shine!

Overall, I like this oil and can’t really think of any negatives about it. If I was being picky, I could say that you have to be careful when dispensing the product because a lot could come out at once! Don’t completely put it upside down to dispense or your hands will get oily!

Yay!

Availability: Select Shoppers Drug Mart locations and online at shoppersdrugmart.ca/beauty.
Price: $60 CAD

Press sample featured. Opinions are own.

Korres Wild Rose Foaming Cream Cleanser

At the ACI beauty preview event this September, we were introduced to a new product off of the Korres Wild Rose line! The Wild Rose Foaming Cream Cleanser has joined the family. I’m a big fan of their oil so I was quite excited to dry the cleanser.

What it says (Taken from Sephora):

Wild Rose Foaming Cream Cleanser is a gentle cleanser for the face and eyes to remove impurities, makeup, mascara and environmental pollutants without dehydrating the skin. The cleanser is enriched with wild rose oil, a natural source of vitamin C, and super vitamin C, which absorbs 1,000 percent more than pure ascrobic acid. It refreshes, and maintains skin’s normal pH levels while leaving it silky, soft, and supple. 

Application: My favourite thing about this cleanser is the SCENT. It smells like wonderfully floral, just like roses!

Although this cleanser is described as a foaming cream cleanser, it did not foam at all. I would describe it as a cream cleanser.

A little pump fully cleans my skin and leaves it feeling soft and plump. If wearing foundation, I would recommend using a bit more and washing a bit longer to dissolve all the foundation. I love that this cleanser leaves my skin smelling like roses and how plump it feels.

I don’t feel the need to moisturize after, but of course I still do because moisturizing is super important (whether your skin feels dry or not!)

Yay!

Availability: Shoppers Drug Mart stores or online
Price: $32.00 CAD

Beauty: Estee Lauder Perfectionist Pro Rapid Firm + Lift Treatment

At the Estee Lauder Spring 2018 preview event, I was introduced to their new Perfectionist Pro Rapid Firm + Lift Treatment with Acetyl Hexapeptide-8 cream! What a mouthful.

It is definitely a luxury cream, priced at $108.00. Here’s what I thought of it!

What it says (Taken from Estee Lauder website):

This high-speed formula delivers visible improvement to multiple facial zones—along the jawline, cheeks, around eyes and even stubborn laugh lines—for an overall natural, more lifted and youthful look. Instantly: Your skin is radiant, hydrated, rejuvenated.

In 3 Days: Your skin feels smooth, plumped, baby-soft. Gentle AHAs refine skin’s texture.

With a powerful concentration of Acetyl Hexapeptide-8—a custom-designed rebuilding peptide—the formula penetrates quickly. Helps skin boost its natural collagen and elastin to strengthen its vital support network.

Application: The cream comes on a stick, which I usually put on my hand and then apply. It has a somewhat gel/cream texture and is lightweight. I like the pearly finish as well. There is not much scent to it.

Wear: I find that my skin feels instantly hydrated, as the cream absorbs very quickly. The instant hydration and light weight factors are enjoyable for me, because it seems that I am in a rush more often than not.

-Instant hydration
-Leaves skin feeling radiant, plump and soft

-Products with AHA may cause skin sensitivity, so it is best to apply with sunscreen and limit sun exposure
-Not a big fan of the application stick, would prefer a pump

Yay!

Availability: Sephora, online, department stores
Pricing: $100.00 CAD

Beauty: Mizon Snail Repair Cream

Snail cream may sound weird to you, but it shouldn’t! In recent years, many beauty companies have switched to natural ingredients in their products. So why should we stick our noses up at the thought of snail cream when consumers are increasingly wanting to purchase natural, non-chemical products?!

I get that it may sound gross because of the term ‘mucous’ is associated with nasty stuff, but Koreans have been using snail cream for many years with good results. I mean, honey is also bee spit, or bee vomit yet no one bats an eye at it!
Anyways, I decided to purchase my first snail cream product from Amazon last month after hearing great things about it from Maki. I chose the Mizon one because it had really good reviews.

What it says (taken from Amazon):

  • With 92 percent snail mucus extract, it provides outstanding skin regeneration and recovery, solves multiple skin concerns and trouble all-in-one
  • Anti-aging, fine wrinkle, blemish, acne scar, and pore care that creates elastic, bouncy, bright, and healthy skin
  • Contains snail mucus filtrate, adenosine, peptides, and vitamin 5 certified for anti-aging effect
  • Free from fragrance, artificial color, and parabens, ideal for sensitive skin types-step 1 in the snail repair line

Application: The snail repair cream has a gel consistency. It has a nice cooling effect. The product absorbed instantly into my skin and left it feeling very plump and hydrated. During the winter, my skin gets dry and has a tight feeling, but I was able to prevent that with this cream and other products in my night time skin routine.

Results: Since I used this in conjunction with other products, it’s hard to say whether or not this solely improved my skin. However, I noticed that my pores have gotten smaller and my skin isn’t dry as it normally is in the winter time.

I brought this along to Mexico, where it was hot and a bit humid. Since my skin type is normally oily, the snail repair cream was a bit too much in that sort of weather. The boyfriend got a sunburn because he didn’t listen to me, so I put this on his skin which gave it a cooling sensation like aloe would. Snail cream is known to provide really fast skin regeneration so it helped speed up the healing process.

Overall, I really like the Mizon snail cream! It is richly moisturizing yet light weight. I’m glad that I tried it and would love to try other snail products.

-Richly moisturizing
-Light weight
-Quick absorbing

-Can’t really think of any…!!!
Yay!

 

Beauty: Wunderbrow

For the past year and a half, I have seen sooo many ads on the Wunderbrow. They looked pretty gimicky though. I must admit that they intrigued me, but never enough to purchase it and try for myself.

Since the boyfriend and I are finally going on an (airplane) vacation after four years to Mexico, I decided to look up some waterproof makeup products. That’s when I came across the Wunderbrow again and after watching many test videos, decided to order it off Amazon!

Is it really waterproof and does it live up to its 3 day claim?! Let’s find out!

What it says (Taken from website):

Perfect even the most disobedient of brows with our one-step, long-wear eyebrow gel, WUNDERBROW from WUNDER2! Define, fill and thicken for a more natural brow look that is completely waterproof, smudge-proof, transfer-proof and lasts up to 3 days. Easily brush on the natural looking gel, infused with ‘hair-like’ fibers to fill and sculpt.
As mentioned above, I ordered the Wunderbrow off Amazon and it arrived within 2 days with prime. It comes with a little spoolie too.

Application: All the reviews I watched/read mentioned that the brush tip (pictured above) sucks and is really hard to use. Indeed, I agree with this. You definitely can not use the brush that it comes with. I found it easiest to apply with a stiff angle brush.

The application took a bit longer and was kind of annoying. I found that I constantly had to dip my angled brush in the product and slowly dab it. In particular, the end of my left eyebrow was quite hard to do as the product wouldn’t stick so it became patchy in that one area only. For that area, I just had to dip extra product.

Wear: Here is the most important part! Does it live up to it’s claim of 3 days smudge proof, transfer proof, and waterproof?! The answer is… somewhat. Why somewhat?

I was very surprised when I rubbed my finger over my eyebrows, and literally nothing smudged off or transferred! After a shower, my eyebrows looked the same and after doing the finger rubbing test again, nothing transferred or smudged!

However, it definitely does not last 3 days. I would give it 24 hours at most. I tested this to sleep, and when I woke up, probably 50% of the product is there.

Here are two videos of me doing the smudge and transfer proof test!

In this video, I waited a minute for the product to try beforehand.

Perfectly in tact after a shower!

Here is a photo with me in the morning after washing my face/brushing my teeth etc. My natural eyebrows are a bit lighter, so the pigment is still there but it would need to be defined again.

(I do not recommend sleeping with any sort of makeup on, but when a product claims to last 3 days and be waterproof, it had to be tested.)

Overall, I am quite impressed with the Wunderbrow and will be taking it with me to Mexico! Usually, products that claim to be waterproof aren’t waterproof at all and will smudge… but the Wunderbrow did not fail me.

I haven’t decided if I will be testing out any waterproof eyeliners too, but the Pixi Endlessly Silky Pen really impressed me last month so perhaps I will just bring that.  Let me know if you have any waterproof suggestions!

Yay!

Product purchased by me. Opinions are own.